This is the view Sadie and I have on our morning walks when we cross the meadow on the other side of the campground.
Eventually there will be horses in here this summer but for the time being it's empty and the perfect spot to let Sadie off leash for a little. (except for the abundance of horse manure which she'll eat if I'm not looking) :(




The little building in the collage above and below is an old school building. Obviously it has seen better days!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous from the time we've arrived with very unseasonable warm temperatures (for here) of 72-74F. Normally those are temperatures for June or July, if you're lucky.

Nature has reacted by putting out a wild flower display in 'my' meadow:

Left: Larkspur (delphinium) and Arrowleaf Balsamroot, Glacier Lily in the middle, Prarie Star (Saxifrage) at the top right
and Sugarbowl (Clematis Hirsutissima) and Yellowbell (Fritillaria) at the bottom.

I just love the scenery here! The view from our RV is just incredible. One of the reasons my blogging speed is way down is that my laptop sits right in front of the window, as you can see below, with my binoculars right next to it and I'm constantly on the watch-out for wildlife.

Now I know these pictures aren't much good, the zoom on my camera just doesn't cut it, but through the binoculars I can see these horses quite clearly.

The same goes for these prong horns....

and this moose.... (I know, I'm reaching...)

One morning I even spotted a bison but he (or she) was chased out quickly by the farmer who owns the land so I couldn't get a picture.

Apparently this is a yearly occurrence. 

Cows come down to the lower meadows around the park to give birth but unfortunately the afterbirth can cause brucellosis, a disease that causes cattle to miscarry so every year a full on 'bison hazing' occurs (they even use helicopters) to bring them back to the park.

Some are not happy about the stress this causes to the pregnant cows and the sometimes only hours old calves and are protesting every year.

As always, there are two sides to a story but I can't help thinking: "who was here first?"

Any-who, the pool that looked like this when we arrived in the first week of May......

 

.....yes, that is ice!

                   .......has thawed and is now up and running.

One of James' first 'special project', which he is in charge of here, was to install a lift-chair for handicapped use. He was the first one to test it too!

Watch the sign: 'Pool temp 85F', now that's my kind of swimming pool! Also note the 'absolutely nobody under 14 in hot tub'. 'Seriously'. I like that too!

My plan is to swim every other day to get a little exercise. OK, we'll see how that goes....

  

These are a few of the other jobs James has been doing so far... 

Taking the boards from the windows of the cabins, replacing some

rotted out boards and studs from the deck at the swimming pool entrance, and demolishing a shower. 

The last one is an ongoing project that will last all summer since they're going to renovate all showers. He's actually drawing up CAD plans for it at the moment (bottom left), something he loves to do and something that allows him to work from the RV.

So far he likes the work and the fact that he's working by himself, at his own pace and that his boss, Ed, is a real nice and easy-going guy.

And he can drive around in his cool John Deere cart!

My work so far hasn't been too spectacular except for a lot more baking....

The raisins in the cake were supposed to sink in.....they didn't...

I've also been sitting behind the computer a lot, when I'm not outside exploring and taking pictures,  trying to post blogs and researching and ordering a whole bunch of replacement parts for the RV.

For some reason all kinds of small stuff is either leaking or failing all at the same time so we have some work to do.

Among all the boring parts that have arrived from camping world was also the set of dominoes I finally ordered. We played it once with Joe and Deanna and I've always wanted to get a set of our own.

Since I had to find something that would get me over $100 for free shipping, now we do :)

Guess who likes to play too?

By the way, he has fully recuperated from the mysterious 'attack' of a few weeks ago and is as adventures as ever so that unfortunately didn't make too much or too long of an impact.

Sadie has perked up considerably since we're here. She has always liked cooler temperatures and she seems very happy to have left the dessert behind.

Her back legs are still in bad shape though, she's very unstable, but she still can and wants to walk so....go for it girl!

And although she can't jump on the couch anymore she does like to snooze the day away on her comfy bed and pillows!

That wraps it up for today, I think. Here's the end of another perfect spring day, with a nice sunset towards the Lion Head Mountains just behind us.

 

 

Old Faithful

I think nothing says Yellowstone more than this beautiful geyser and we finally saw it when we drove the 'South Loop' of the Park last week!

Isn't that something? Erupting boiling (up to 99F) water every 60 minutes, or thereabouts, approximately 150' in the air, it is in fact the most predictable geographical feature on Earth.

But I'm getting ahead of myself while I'm actually way behind myself since in the meantime we have been already a second time into the park and are planning to go again tomorrow.

I'm just too busy putzing around to blog for some reason!

Well, lets try to start from the beginning. After driving to the West entrance and buying a year pass for the National Parks ($80) we drove for a while alongside the Madison River.

Not even 10 minutes into the drive we encountered a small heard of bison walking by the side of the road.

  

They were the first of many that day being the animal most encountered in the park together with elk. They're the ones that can cause the hour-long 'animal-jams' you hear about during the summer.

Boy, are they huge! Bulls can weigh upwards of 2000 pounds,

cows average about 1,400 and both stand approximately six feet tall at the shoulder.

Yellowstone is the only place in the lower 48 states where a population of wild American bison has persisted since prehistoric times, although fewer than 50 native bison remained there in 1902.

At the present there are about 3000 of them in the park.

They're very decorative, don't you think? Especially with those geysers in the back.

 

After turning right at Madison and driving south for 10 minutes we arrived at what is called the 'Lower Geyser Basin' for a first look at what makes Yellowstone so unique. Geysers!

Nowhere in the world are there as many.

All a result of huge volcanic eruptions some millions of years ago the magmatic heat still powers the park's geysers, hot springs, fumaroles and mud pots.

  

It's an almost eerie, definitely surreal, landscape, all these steaming holes and plopping mud pots!

Some of the mud pits and surrounding ground have a pH of 1-2 (same as battery acid) and can be as hot as 200F. The underground steaming water holes shift as it erodes the earth away. You don't want to stray of the path!

A lot of the pools and surroundings have beautiful colors as in cobalt blue waters and bright yellow and orange edges:

 

A little farther down the Firehole River, past Mount Haynes,

Mount Haynes

we spot a moose on the river banks. A little far away but I think you can see it's a moose .. no?

I'll include a small map of the lower loop here in case you already lost me :)

 

 

Next stop is the Midway Geyser Basin where we used one of the nice boardwalks that you can find all throughout the park and that enable you to get up close and personal with all the steamy soil and geysers without burning your shoes (serious) or falling through the, at places, thin crust of mud.

 

Past the huge crater of the Excelsior Geyser we arrived at the park's largest hot spring, the Grand Prismatic.

The beautiful colors are caused by heat loving bacteria!

Back on the road we encounter a small herd of the large population of elks in the park.

 

A little after noon we arrive at the Upper Geyser Basin, the site for the park's most well known feature, Old Faithful.

We're in luck, we think, because the next erupture is predicted to take place in about 10 minutes!

Unfortunately the geyser isn't as faithful as it used to be, which was about every 60 minutes. Over the years and probably due to some (smaller) earthquakes and shifting of plates deep underneath the surface eruption intervals have changed to 90 or sometimes even 120 minutes!

I haven't mentioned the weather yet but fortunately we picked a gorgeous day to visit. It has been unseasonably warm since we've arrived in Montana and while we're waiting for the big happening we're enjoying our lunch on the benches of the boardwalk that surrounds the geyser.

As you can see we're not the only ones!

Well, as it so happens, 'Old Faithful' is 30 minutes late today, but finally ........ there she (he?) blows!

Awesome!

Better late than never as they say and the delay was made up by it being an unusual high and long eruption so that was pretty spectacular!

Onwards we went, this time to, you guessed it, the WEST Thumb Geyser Basin! Although one of the smallest geyser basins in Yellowstone, its location along the shore of Yellowstone Lake ranks it as the most scenic.  

Blue Funnel Spring

Surging Spring

Fishing Cone is a thermal feature unique to Yellowstone. It is situated on the shore of Yellowstone Lake and received its name from early explorers who stood on the cone and cast their lines into the lake to catch fish. Without taking the fish of the hook they parboiled them in the vent of Fishing Cone!

Abyss Pool, depth 53 feet, is the deepest pool known in Yellowstone.

Not too far from the basin we came across a little traffic jam alongside the road. Usually a sure sign something (animal) has been spotted.

This time it was a young grizzly! According to the ranger who was among the on-lookers, probably about 2 years old.

He was sniffing his way through the grass, stopping to scrape at the soil here and there, trying for edible roots and plants.



What are you guys all looking at?
(wanna-be my lunch?)

Finally we reached the Yellowstone Lake which can boast to be the largest body of water in Yellowstone National Park and the largest freshwater lake above 7,000 feet (2,133 m) in North America.

In winter, ice nearly 3 feet (1 m) thick covers much of the lake, except where shallow water covers hot springs.

The lake freezes over by early December and can remain frozen until late May or early June. It just started to break up again.

 

It made for some pretty pictures, don't ya think?

 

 

Well, I think I'll leave the rest of the loop for another time. We were also pretty much pooped by know and decided to just keep on driving back from here unless some unusual animal would make his or her appearance. 

We still stopped a couple of times to make some pictures though. It's hard to ignore such stunning beauty!

Here's a little collage of some of the spring flowers that are popping up in the meadows. I feel I'm neglecting them a little in favor of the more spectacular (and much larger) features of the park but I think they're just as pretty.

Better yet, they sit still when you want to take their picture and don't try to kick, bite or attack you! :)

                   'Kitten tails', 'shooting stars' and 'buttercups'

View from our rig!

We're here! And believe it or not this is the view from our window! Isn't that awesome?
That's Yellowstone Park you're seeing there in the distance.

We couldn't be happier with our spot, it's so beautiful up here! The snow has pretty much melted, just some patches here and there and the weather is absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful blue skies in the morning, although it did freeze lightly at night this week, and some white fluffy clouds in the afternoon. And no wind!

Our trip up here went smooth as can be. No major problems, no rain, snow or anything, we were very lucky!
Since I haven't posted for a while I'll start filling you in from just before we left. Hang in there, it's going to be long!





First of all, I celebrated my birthday on the 26th. OK, it was my 52nd if you have to know!
James surprised me with a beautiful orchid and lunch at the Italian restaurant at the Avi casino.

We went for one of our last rounds of golf and even ventured into the pool in the afternoon (our first time since we were there because it wasn't heated!) since it was really hot that day.

I guess he had to eat too...

That weekend was a busy one because of the River Run Biker weekend that's being held every year around this time in Laughlin.
It started out as a small event in 1984 with only 650 bikers attending but it has grown into one of the biggest motor weekends in the country with 70.000 people showing up last year!

The event is unfortunately also known for the River Run Riot, which occurred on 27 April2002 when members of the Hells Angels and the Mongols motorcycle clubs stabbed and shot at each other at Harrah's Laughlin. Mongol Anthony Barrera, 43, was stabbed to death, and two Hells Angels, Jeramie Bell, 27, and Robert Tumelty, 50, were shot to death.

This year was a peaceful one though and we had fun strolling the parking lot at the Avi, admiring the bikes that were parked there.



   

 

The campground's aloe and red yucca started flowering and the cotton was growing fast in the fields around us. 

That last week the temperatures had been close to 100F (35C), we were all huffing and puffing and wishing to get out of dodge!

 

 

 

           

                2 weeks ago                                                                     and now

 

 

Two days before we left we were packing up and came across a real bad tire when we took the wheel cover off. We hadn't noticed it when we put it on, maybe it just dried out further during the winter?

Not really wanting to research tires and maybe having to wait for them, and also not really wanting to spend the money (yet), we decided to use our new spare tire and buy a new one (probably make that a few new ones) when we're in Montana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I baked some peanut butter chocolate chips cookies (m..m..m!), for the road and finally we were on our way on Sunday the 28th of April!

 

             

 

 

 

We were going to take it very easy and spend our first night at one of the campgrounds on Lake Mead, only about an hour away.

It was a very hot day and when we arrived at the Calville campground on the North side of the Lake around 2 pm it was close to 105 F!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We wanted to dry camp to save money (for the very expensive KOA coming up in Salt Lake) and counted on our generator to fire up the air conditioners so we could have a comfortable night. Ha! One of those best laid plans again ......

 

Whatdayathink? The generator didn't fire up! Oh well. Needless to say it wasn't a very good night for any of us.

 

But especially not for poor Merlin since he managed to get attacked by some mystery animal just before we went to bed.

All of a sudden he came flying in the RV and hid behind the bed with eyes like saucers, completely freaked out and, on inspection, with a small hole in his left shoulder and a limping right front leg!

I disinfected his wound, hoping it wouldn't get infected and he slept all night in the bedroom cuddled against us.

 

 

 We had a glimpse of the Lake from our site.

 

 

Now a little about the Lake just to make this informative shall we? 

Lake Mead  has the distinction of being the largest man-made lake and reservoir in the Unites States.

While not technically a national park, Lake Mead Recreation Area falls under the jurisdiction of the National Parks Service.
Just outside Las Vegas, Nevada, it didn't exist until the completion of the Hoover Dam.  The lake is a major tourist attraction because it offers a wide variety of activities of which boating is the most important. 

The lake is named for Elwood Mead, who in 1936 oversaw the planning and construction of the Boulder Dam Project, which built what we now know as the Hoover Dam across the Colorado River. This project blocked and tamed the river, which in turn flooded a part of the Mojave Desert, creating Lake Mead.

 

Because of a long time drought Lake Mead has recently either moved or closed down several boat launch ramps.

 

 

 

 

 

We continued our way following the road along the north shore of the Lake. Unfortunately you don't see the Lake much from the road but it leads through areas of beautifully colored rock formations and canyons of the Black and Muddy Mountains.

 

 

 

 

 

And the following are the red rocks of the aptly named 'Redstone Canyon':

 

 

 

 

Again, we had an easy, short day and arrived at our next destination, the CasaBlanca Casino campground in Mesquite, Nevada, around 1 pm. 

 

It was still very hot, almost 100F, and we didn't take long to set up, fire up the AC for the animals and head for the pool ourselves!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a great afternoon of doing absolutely nothing we were up for a little longer day of travel the next day when we headed for Nephi, Utah, which brought us close to Salt Lake City for some afternoon sightseeing on the day after.

 

We stayed on the I-15 North which by the way is a very nice road that is actually very scenic most of the time.

 

 

This was our lunch picnic spot close to Fort Cove, looking towards the snow on the foothills of the Pahvant Range.

 

The temperatures are finally dropping. Sadie loves it!

 

 

 

 

A little more openness at the planes alongside the Sevier Desert.

 

 

 

 

And the telltale signs of having entered Utah; Mormon churches everywhere!

 

We spent the night at a Flying Jay truck stop in Nephi where we ended up parking at the next door Denny's. Not a bad spot and much quieter!

The wind had picked up and it was much, much cooler here.

 

After a frosty night (!) we had only 100 miles to go to Salt Lake City where we were going to stay at the city's KOA which is located very conveniently right in the City Center. 

We waited until the morning traffic died down to have a very smooth ride into town and found our way easily to the campground.

There was no lack of room this early in the season and we set up in a nice big pull-through.

 

After a little shopping, some oil and filters for the truck, we drove 16 miles west to see the south shore of the Great Salt Lake for which the city was named.

 

 

                                          The salt is clearly visible along the shoreline.

 

 

The Great Salt Lake is both the largest body of water between the Great Lakes and the Pacific Ocean and the largest salt lake in the western hemisphere.

Great Salt Lake is salty because it does not have an outlet. Tributary rivers are constantly bringing in small amounts of salt dissolved in their fresh water flow. Once in the Great Salt Lake much of the water evaporates leaving the salt behind.

Swimming will be easy here, you'll float like a cork!

 

 

 

 

Much of the lake is ringed by extensive wetlands making Great Salt Lake one of the most important resources for migrating and nesting of millions of more than 257 species of  birds.

 

  

 

 

The Salt Lake State Marina  gives boaters access to the lake.

 

 

Back at the campground we took Sadie for a walk along the beautiful little path that borders the park and a little stream for almost a mile. 

 

 

 

 

The next morning we took the convenient (and free!) shuttle that drops you right at Temple Square.

This was the main, or probably only, reason for staying at this outrageously expensive KOA. We payed $51 (gasp) per night!

The site was beautiful I must say and the hot tub in the evening was very nice but I still think it's way overpriced!

 

Our shuttle driver advised us to first check out the view from the 26th floor of the Mormon Church Office Building.

Since you're not allowed to go up by yourselves we were accompanied by a very sweet old lady that gave us a great tour of the 2 observation decks and loads of information about this beautiful city that sprawled out before us.

 

 

 

 

Most prominent feature is off course the Salt Lake temple; just behind it on the left is the Assembly Hall and on the right the Tabernacle. 

 

 

Salt Lake City is the headquarters for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and has many LDS-related sites open to visitors.
The most popular is Temple Square, where three of the main buildings that surround it were build by the Mormon pioneers who arrived in 1847.
They were led here by their leader Brigham Young after being driven out of the northern states for their religious beliefs. Upon seeing the Valley Young declared 'this was it', referring to a vision his (murdered) predecessor and founder of the Mormon belief, Joseph Smith, had for the place where to build a temple and the new 'city of  Zion'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Salt Lake Temple is not open to the general public but the two excellent visitors centers with presentations about the beliefs and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are and they are well worth a visit!

 

 

Latter-day Saints believe in the resurrection of Jesus, as depicted in the 11' replica of Bertel Thorvaldsen's Christus statue located in the North Visitors' Center .
 

 

A scale model shows the interior of the Temple

The square is beautifully landscaped and we were just in time for the spectacular display of spring flowers and blossoms.

The bronzed statue on the right honors the LDS Church leader and pioneer-colonizer, Brigham Young. The monument also pays tribute to the Utah Indians and fur trappers who preceded the Mormon settlers into the Salt Lake Valley.

 

Temple Square also includes the historic Tabernacle (on the left), home of the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir. 

 

 




The Utah State Capitol Building on the bottom right has a dome similar to that of the building that houses the U.S. Congress. 

 

 

                            

                       

 

 

At noon we attended the daily organ recital in the Tabernacle building by organist Richard L. Elliott.

 

After showing off the incredible acoustics of the building by dropping a nail which could clearly be heard by all in the audience some 50 yards away he than proceeded to play this beautiful organ built in the 1860's, totaling 11,623 pipes!

Amongst the Liberty Bell March, a piece by Bach and a couple of other Hymns he also played the Hymn 'Come, come Ye Saints', written as the pioneers made their trek from Illinois to the Salt Lake Valley.

Very, very, very beautiful. It almost literary blew me away!

 

 

 

James looking into (some of) the Hess family history

 

After lunch we visited the famous Family History Library, the largest genealogical library in the world, located just west of Temple Square. It is also run by the LDS Church and is open to the public at no charge to assist anybody in tracing their family histories.

This library doesn't cover Mormon family history only, you can find any of all documents in the world here. 

In addition to 278,000 books the collection includes over 2 million rolls of microfilmed records, 711,000 microfiche  and several electronic data files!

 

 

 

The Beehive House

 

 

A block off the square we visited the Beehive House. Built in 1854 and formally the home of Brigham Young. It's restored and finished with original pieces.

The free tour was conducted by two very sweet young Mormon girls, one American and one French, who were serving their term as missionaries.

The LDS Church expects all male members to serve a two-year mission. Unmarried women 19 years and older may also serve as missionaries, generally for a term of 18 months, however, women are not under the same expectation to serve as male members are, and may serve solely as a personal decision.

 

 

 

 

Not too shabby for a prophet...

 

 

During our day around the square and in the buildings we were approached by quite a few of these extremely friendly and polite young people. The word 'joyful' comes to mind to describe them.

They didn't 'bother' us with their beliefs but most of them put in a word or two about their history and what they believe in.

Several times we were offered a 'Book of Mormon' and finally we accepted one. Who knows, I might read it one day, it could be interesting.

 

After a short tour through the Church History Museum we were suffering from a serious information overload around 4 pm and decided to go back to the campground to relax a little. 

But after dinner and a walk with the dog we returned to the square again for a rehearsal of the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

 

This choir broadcasts a live television and radio program each Sunday morning and has weekly rehearsal on a Thursday evening in the Tabernacle that the public can attend. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boy, were we in for a treat! The 'heavenly' voices of this choir are truly not from this planet. Their final 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' (Glory, glory, Halleluja..) left me practically in tears.

 

I couldn't think of a more fitting end to this very interesting day.

                       

 

 

 

After a nice breakfast the next morning we left the city and deviated from the I-15 to follow the 91 over a pass unto a high plateau and finally into Idaho.

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the Potato Museum in Blackfoot. What a hoot!

 

 

 

Marilyn Monroe in a potato sack - of course - , a potato masher collection, world history of potatoes, a burlap tuxedo, a video about potatoes, a Mr. Potato Head collection, even a potato song.... and a box of free potato hash browns as you leave.

Live and laugh...often!

 

Driving towards Idaho Falls, our destination for the day, we encountered the first (and what turned out only) rain of this trip!

We parked at the Walmart Superstore for the night and bought two shopping cards full of groceries!

Enough food for a month we hope. Although West Yellowstone has 2 grocery stores they're expensive and we're probably going to end up shopping once a month in either Bozeman or Idaho Falls.

 

Stocked up to the gills we proceeded the next day towards Rexburg and Island Park for the last 100 miles to our final destination, West Yellowstone!

 

 

 

 

 

We had worried a little about the Targhee Pass and possible snow or ice but we never noticed that we scaled the summit, it was that gradual!

The weather was perfect and the road dry and so, before we knew it, we arrived at the Yellowstone KOA, about 6 miles before town at around 2pm.

 

 

 

Here's the KOA, on the right amidst those Pines.

 

 

The campground is still closed so it was very easy to manoeuvre around to our spot. Although we were assigned a different one initially we got permission to swap to one that we liked much better, right on the edge of the Park on top of a hill, overlooking the valley!

 

Because of the beautiful weather we could take our time setting up everything without any rush and by 5pm we were ready for our first happy hour in Montana! 

 

 

Have some moose drool!

 

 

 

And will you look at that view again!

 

 

 

If you're still reading until here, good for you, but you might be happy to know that this is all for today!

Take a well deserved break and see you later!